If you are in a solo lane consider leveling dark blades before level 4 for the extra damage boost, it helps last hitting significantly.

Role of Dark LadyShe is a ganker. Her abilities allow her to silence multiple enemies and do some decent damage early-midgame vs her enemies. Don't be fooled by the fact that she is an agility melee hero.

Some things to remember.You are going to want to be the one intiating, since you are the silencer, slower, and blink machine.

The one level of dark blades at level 4 can be utilized with charging strike to silence all enemies you charge through.

Cover of Darkness is both a defensive and an offensive ability. Use it to foil enemy ganks, gank enemies, turn the tide of teamfights. It is a very strong ability.

Item build for Dark LadyBecause she is an agility melee hero, yet is a caster unit, she is very unique and as such can be built a number of different ways. This is the build that i use.

At start

2 Pretender Crowns a Healing Potion and Runes of the Blight

Later onBottleWardsMarchers

Midgame2x Talisman or 2x Bracelet, or one of eachPost Haste or Steam Bootsoror

Lategame

Hellflower

Justification of item buildDue to the fact that you are a melee hero, with poor int and str, it's reasonable to get some regen early with runes and healing pot.

Despite the fact that she is an agility hero she needs hp and mana early-midgame, this depends on the game primarily. The bottle and talisman should cover her mana issues, or if she really needs hp she can get bracelets.

Post Haste vs Steam BootsThis is really how well you are farming, ganking. If you have the money, post haste boots are a great idea, but in most cases you will be going steam boots. I recommend going steam boots in the attribute that you didn't pump points into earlier on (int if you went bracelets and str if you went talismans).

HellflowerDue to charging strike, Taint, and Dark Blades, she can silence and damage the other team pretty well. However this item improves her dps, solves her mana problems once and for all, and lets her silence another enemy as well and increase the damage done to that enemy. This is a great item on her.

omfg noob why do u skip cover at 11? noob l2p dark lady.With this build, it's built towards a more lategame-oriented dark lady and her mana pool is far from sufficient to support 2 points in cover before level 15/16.

why no runed axe? WOW l2p DL ROFL.I mentioned runed axe as an additional luxury item you might consider getting for her after nullfire blade. It's a decent item on her but nullfire/abyssal is easier to farm and help her with more than just farming.

omfg noob why do u skip cover at 11? noob l2p dark lady.With this build, it's built towards a more lategame-oriented dark lady and her mana pool is far from sufficient to support 2 points in cover before level 15/16.

why no runed axe? WOW l2p DL ROFL.I mentioned runed axe as an additional luxury item you might consider getting for her after nullfire blade. It's a decent item on her but nullfire/abyssal is easier to farm and help her with more than just farming.

the runed axe is really only good for farming and pushing lanes, the regen is a nice touch. I would go for shieldbreaker after steamboots and 2 soulscream rings, then nullfire, THEN riftshards. The nullfire slow is just so goddamn handy, it cannot be skipped.

I never get why people neglect the cleaving attack in runed axe. Yes the mana regen is nice, but it's ridiculous to buy this item without any regard to the massive farming enhancer the cleaving is, and more importantly late game; how devastating the cleaving attack can be in clashes. It's obvious that DL is dependet on a teammate combo (tempest, keeper etc. for the cleaving to have full effect), but the simple combo of cleaving and DL's ulti is pretty decent in itself. DL's ulti makes most teams gather up closely not to loose vision = amazing cleaving output. If they don't, they risk getting lost = the very point of DL's ulti anyway.The dive DL makes to enter a clash is not to be overlooked either, since cleaving stacks with Charging Strikes. This sums up to a ridiculous splash if the enemy team is in a creepwave. 5 heroes + 5 creeps = a potential of 315% splash dmg in addition to hitting all the targets with Charging Strikes - all in an instant. You could argue that this is not relevant untill the dmg output on DL is high, which would put Runed after items like Savage and/or riftshards, but to completely ignore this perfect synergy between Charging strikes and Cleaving is rarely beneficial imo.